Void
by Pyralis Anacreon
Summary: Harry Potter is born without magic, but that doesn't make him a squib, or a muggle.


Void

* * *

Harry Potter is born without magic, but that doesn't make him a squib, or a muggle.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Potter. It's... he's... the healer has just finished the scan. He's a squib."

* * *

The Potters spend the first few months of their son's life hiding under some powerful wards. But they slowly weakened, far faster than would be normal. This didn't bother Lily and James; there was no way Voldemort could ever think _theirs _was the prophecy child, after all. Harry was a squib.

They move under the Fidelius ward only when Dumbledore insists. Their other wards are by then barely enough to keep out the common post owl.

* * *

The Fidelius drains at Albus' magic more than he remembers. He must be getting tired in his old age.

* * *

Voldemort attacks and kills the Longbottoms. Dumbledore knows Harry is the prophecy's child because _he has to be_, because _it can't end like this_.

* * *

Peter Pettigrew spills the secret after half an hour of torture. The Potters are attacked within the week, by a group of Death Eaters after the people who've escaped their Lord thrice and lived to tell.

* * *

Harry survives. The killing curse thrown carelessly his way doesn't bounce off, but no one notices that the quiet child isn't dead.

Albus finds a baby in the wreckage. Eventually, he decides that Hogwarts is indeed the safest place in the world.

* * *

The Hogwarts wards begin to fail within Harry's first month there. By the time he turns two, Albus makes the connection. Too late. Voldemort attacks. Harry wanders around the remnants of the castle, calling for anyone to help him.

* * *

The Groundskeeper Hagrid finds him. Harry is raised to the age of five on the battleground where the great Albus Dumbledore fell. By then, all of Hogwart's wards are gone. Hagrid finds that even his pink umbrella won't work for him any more.

* * *

An attack on Diagon Alley while Harry and Hagrid are shopping takes the half-giant's life. Every piece of magic within a ten-mile radius vanishes. The entire population of the Alley become squibs in less than a moment. Voldemort loses twenty-three Death Eaters, and he wants to know why.

* * *

Five-year-old Harry Potter wanders into muggle London. Cars break down as he wanders past; lights go out; windows rattle. He walks on.

* * *

Later, a little boy turns up in St. Mungo's. It has been exactly six years since he was last there.

* * *

"He's got... pure magic, just falling off him. In waves. We found him breaking every electrical thing in sight just by being in the same area. But he can't seem to use it."

"So?"

"So, no wizard can handle that much magic. I don't think even a dragon could. He's dying. It's like, cooking him alive from the inside out."

* * *

St. Mungo's wards and spells and concealments fall. Voldemort, hearing about this strange boy and seeing a weak point in the hospital's defenses, launches an attack. He leads it himself; don't want a mere minion screwing this one up.

The greatest wizard alive is reduced to squib status. His horcruxes can't stop this. He thinks this might be a fate worse than death.

* * *

Harry wanders again, mostly in a daze. In his mind, the building blocks of life and creation whirl together to create something beautiful. He's faintly aware of the chaos he causes, and the itchy squirming of the stuff that likes to invade his body. He's also faintly aware of dying. This doesn't really bother him all that much.

* * *

The boy spontaneously combusts, wandering by the Weasley's house. Before this, the protections are sucked up in an instant and there are five more squibs in the world. Just after, magic explodes from the body of a ten-year-old boy. It manages to disrupt the Earth so much that a chain of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions emerges.

What happens next is a bit like the apocalypse, except something is left over.

* * *

The survivors, what few there are, begin anew. It will be hard, but they can rewrite history.

Voldemort, still alive and dearly wishing he wasn't, discovers that there truly is a fate worse than death. It can be found under a mile of cooling lava and ash. Maybe someday the world will find him again, but by then he will be too far gone to care.


End file.
